


Soulstone

by GemmaRose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Soulmarks, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Aromantic Hunk (Voltron), Blood, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Chronic Pain, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eskimo Kisses, F/M, Fluff, Hugs, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) are Roommates, Ice Cream, Illustrated, Meet the Family, Meeting the Parents, Mild Gore, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pain, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Date, Platonic Soulmates, Returning Home, Schmoop, Sharing a Bed, Shopping, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, date
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-08 21:38:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11655243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Humans have a special patch of skin over their heart, pigmented from birth, which resolves into a soulmark in their early teenage years. Or at least, most humans do. Hunk doesn’t mind not having one, but being okay with not having a mark doesn’t make it any easier when something else starts to form there instead.Illustrated byallysparkling.





	1. Chapter 1

“So, is it true?”

Hunk sighed, setting his bag down on his new bed, not turning to look at his roommate. “Is _what_ true?” he asked, though there was only one thing people ever meant when they asked him that.

“That you don’t have a soulmark.”

This was not the first in-person conversation he’d wanted to have, but honestly it looked like he didn’t have much of a choice. “Yes, it’s true. No, I don’t mind. No, I’m not going to show you.” he said bluntly, unzipping his bag and pulling out his favourite shirt.

“Wow. You probably get that a lot.” his roomie chuckled. “But hey, wanna know a secret?” there was a flump of fabric being dumped out, and a glance over his shoulder confirmed that his roommate had just upended a suitcase of clothes on his bed.

“Sure.” Hunk shrugged, looking back at his bag and pulling out more clothes. Tops he tossed in their pile to the left, bottoms went on the right, and socks and underwear and PJs got lumped together between the bag and the wall.

“I don’t have one either.”

Hunk froze, a pair of socks in hand, and turned around to stare. “Really?” he asked, eyes wide. There were only something like fifty million people on the planet without soulmarks. The chances of getting another one of them as his _roommate_ were, well, astronomical.

Oh, that was a good pun, he’d have to remember that for later.

“Mmhmm.” his roomie nodded, grabbing the bottom of his shirt and pulling it up to reveal smooth brown skin across his whole chest. “And y’know what that means, right?”

“Uh, no?” Hunk frowned as Lance pulled his shirt back down.

“I’m a free man! I can flirt with whoever I want, no strings attached.”

Hunk chuckled, and turned back to his bag, tossing the socks in his hand to join the growing pile. “Just don’t hit on me, okay? I’m too aro for that.”

“No prob.” his roommate sounded like he was smiling. “I like to be the tall one in a relationship anyways.”

Hunk laughed, fished the last pair of pajama pants out of his bag, and tossed the duffel towards his chest of drawers. It would be weird, being so far from home for so long, but he got the feeling having a roommate like Lance would make it a little bit easier.

\---

Hunk flopped down on his bed with a huff, rubbing at his chest. The nurse hadn’t found anything, but Hunk was sure there was _something_ going on. Lance was the one who could never remember where his scrapes and bruises came from, not him. And this wasn’t even a bruise, just a gentle pressure next to his heart.

“Oh no.” Lance said as the door slid shut behind him, smile audible in his tone. “Another squish?”

Hunk shook his head, kneading at the area again. “It just... aches.”

“Huh, that’s weird.” Lance fell onto his bed with a squeak of springs. “Been to the nurse?”

“She said there was nothing wrong.” Hunk shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt or anything, it’s just- _Weird_.”

“Huh.” Lance flopped down on his back with another protest of springs. “Maybe that’s just, like, a _thing_ with markless guys like us. Random aches and pains.”

“I still think you’re just forgetful.” Hunk rolled his eyes. “You’d lose your head if it wasn’t attached.”

“Y’know, my grandmother says the same thing.” Lance chuckled. “But a lot more colourfully. Used to say I was so forgetful I’d lost track of my soulmark before I was even born.”

Hunk snorted. “Man, I think our grandmas would get on like a house on fire. My dad said she was always on his and mom’s asses about giving her grandchildren; until I came along.”

“Oh yeah. They’d be the _best_ of friends.” Lance was smiling when Hunk looked over, small and almost bittersweet. “I can see it now, the two of ‘em knitting in rocking chairs and bitching about the weather and young people music.”

“That sounds about right.” Hunk laughed, pushing himself roughly upright. “I’m gonna start on my homework. Do you wanna use my notes to fill in the blanks on yours?”

“God, please.” Lance groaned, rolling onto his side. “Why does she have to lecture so fast? Like, I’m _trying_ but my hands can’t move that quick!”

“In all fairness, she _is_ trying to cover a chapter a day. We’re going through three whole textbooks this year, remember?”

“I’d rather not?” Lance grimaced as Hunk stood, rubbing at his chest one last time before he grabbed his backpack and heaved it up on his desk. “Isidora said my books this year cost almost as much as hers, and she’s in _college_.”

“I got half my books this year for free.” Hunk grinned, pulling out his laptop and homework notebook.

“Okay, you’re teaching me that trick for next year.” Lance said, rolling out of bed and fishing out the binder full of his class notes.

“The trick is Google, y’know.” Hunk rolled his eyes, booting up his laptop. “Aaand, doc is shared.” he said a minute later.

“What would I do without you?” Lance sighed, pulling out his phone and settling back against the wall next to his bed, notes on his lap.

“Crash and burn.” Hunk grinned, opening his e-book. The ache next to his heart was a distant thing now, pushed out of mind by the reading and questions he still had to do.

\---

Hunk got used to the feeling faster than he’d expected. It was a constant, dull pressure just in front of his heart, and unless he was breathing hard or took a hit to the chest he was able to tune it out pretty easily. And for months, that’s how it went. His chest ached, Lance got random scrapes and bruises, and they slogged through their classes together. And then the pain started getting worse. Not all at once, but slowly, steadily, like an itch he couldn’t scratch no matter how hard he rubbed at the skin above it. And still, the nurse couldn’t find anything wrong.

“Bad day?” Lance asked as he sat down heavily on the cafeteria bench with his lunch tray.

“Yeah.” Hunk groaned, slumping forward onto the plastic table. His entire chest ached today, a dull pain radiating out from that spot near his heart. It had never been this bad before. He’d hoped it would fade during the day, but if anything, it was getting worse.

“I can grab you some ibuprofen during passing period, if you need it.” Lance patted his shoulder.

“Thanks.” Hunk grinned, lifting his head to see Lance beaming back.

“No problema!” Lance said, cracking open his soda. “Can I have your fries?”

“What? No!” Hunk shielded his lunch tray with his arm. “Get your own fries.”

“But then I couldn’t get a muffin, and they’ve got the cinnamon apple ones today!” Lance held up a muffin. Hunk rolled his eyes.

“I’m not enabling your muffin addiction.” he said flatly, and Lance blinked at him for a moment before snorting.

“ _Enabling?_ ”

“Yeah. You blow your lunch money on garlic sticks and a muffin you don’t get to have fries, too.” he pulled his tray closer and picked up a chicken tender, resting an elbow on the orange plastic so Lance couldn’t easily snatch any of his fries.

“I don’t think that’s what enabling means.” Lance chuckled, making a playful attempt at grabbing Hunk’s little paper dish of fries.

“You’re still not getting my fries.” he grinned, giving Lance’s shoulder a shove. Pain flickered across Lance’s face, and Hunk quickly set his chicken tender down. “Dude, are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Lance waved his hand dismissively. “Must’ve fallen out of bed last night and landed wrong. I took some ibuprofen this morning, but I think it’s wearing off.”

“Make sure you get some for yourself when you grab mine after lunch, okay?” Hunk frowned, rubbing his roomie’s back. Lance was his best friend, like the brother he’d never had. Seeing him hurt, especially when there was nothing Hunk could do to make it better, almost made him wish Lance had a soulmark. There was no way his friend’s random injuries and his own enduring discomfort weren’t somehow related to the fact that they didn’t have soulmates. Maybe part of the reason people without soulmates had such a high rate of suicides was because of stuff like this. If he had to live with phantom pain for the rest of his life...

“Ha!” Lance crowed, startling Hunk out of his head and back to the cafeteria table.

“Wha-?” his eyes narrowed. “Lance, those are mine!” he swiped at Lance’s hand, but his friend just leaned away, arm shooting up and out.

“You said I couldn’t have your fries.” Lance laughed, shoving a hand against Hunk’s cheek. “Never said the fruit snacks were off limits!”

“I am going to smother you.” Hunk said hotly, grabbing Lance’s elbow and yanking his arm into reach so he could grab the plastic bag. “One of these days, I’m going to smother you in your fucking sleep.”

“Nah.” Lance giggled, picking up a garlic stick and dunking the end in the little cup of marinara sauce. “You would never.”

“Just don’t take my food, okay?” Hunk huffed, picking up his half-eaten chicken tender and stuffing the rest of it in his mouth.

“Sure thing.” Lance said brightly around a mouthful of food. Hunk rolled his eyes. Lance pulled this shit every day. Honestly, he wasn’t even surprised anymore, but the scuffles were fun. They took his mind off the pain in his chest, and reminded him of his sisters back home when they were squabbling over beach toys.

He’d have to call, later. If he tried after dinner, he’d probably catch them just coming home from their after-school clubs and stuff. Hunk grinned, and picked up another chicken tender. At least he could ease one of the aches in his chest.


	2. Chapter 2

Hunk groaned, and curled up on his side. The past two days hadn’t been too bad, but today he’d woken up and his chest had felt like someone was trying to jackhammer through his ribs from the inside. It was like how his aunt on his mom’s side described her migranes. A throbbing, pulsing pain that seemed to keep time with his heartbeat. His stomach lurched warningly when he sat up, and he groaned again as he slumped forwards. Did they have advil in space? Or, no, it had been ten thousand years. Any medicine onboard was probably way expired even if it was safe for humans.

“Hunk?” Lance knocked on his door.

“Come in.” Hunk replied, raising his voice enough to be heard. The door slid open, and Lance stepped in with a bowl of the already familiar green goo in one hand and a spork in the other. Hunk accepted both when they were offered to him without a word.

“You feeling okay?” Lance asked once Hunk had swallowed a mouthful of food goo. “I mean, I know we’re still adjusting to the weird days here but it’s not like you to miss breakfast.”

Fuck, he’d missed breakfast? Hunk swallowed and grimaced, rubbing at the part of his chest which hurt the most, right where most people had a soulmark. “Sorry. Guess I slept in.”

Lance frowned. “Bad day again?”

“Shaping up to be.” Hunk nodded. Sometimes the pain would spike early in the morning and slowly abate throughout the day, but most of the time mornings were the easiest.

“Man, that sucks.” Lance slung an arm around his shoulders. “Wanna ask Coran about doing pod time? He was talking about making sure they’re calibrated for humans earlier, in case we get hurt training or whatever.”

“No.” Hunk shook his head. “I can’t be the baseline for that.”

“Why not?” Lance frowned. Hunk swallowed another sporkful of goo.

“Think of it this way.” Hunk dug his spork into his bowl of good. “If I’ve got something in my chest that’s not supposed to be there, and the cryo-pod scans me, how’s it gonna know that the thing shouldn’t be there?”

“Oh, good point.” Lance nodded. “So, like, after I volunteer for pod time and all those tests and stuff are done, wanna see if the cryo-pods can tell what’s been bugging you?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Hunk grinned. “How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Coran said a movement, but idunno how long that is.” Lance shrugged. “I’ll ask, though.”

“Thanks.” Hunk sighed, digging the heel of his hand into the part of his chest which hurt the most. The pressure helped a little, but less than it had even a month ago. Whatever was wrong with him, whatever the family doctor hadn’t been able to find any evidence of during his appointment over summer break, it was getting worse. Hunk ate another sporkful of what passed for breakfast in space, and tried to shove down the slowly rising sense that this might be something really, _really_ bad.

\---

Hunk slid down against the bathroom wall with a groan, fingers fumbling with the clasps of his cuirass. Today had been a good day. He’d been able to breathe better than he had in _months_. And now it was like all the day’s pain was hitting at once, ripping at his chest from the inside. He pulled his chestplate up and pressed a hand to his chest, shutting his eyes against the tears pricking in them. It felt like something was trying to force its way out from under his ribs, like a smooth mass pressing up against the heel of his palm.

Wait, pressing against his hand? Hunk ripped his cuirass off over his head and yanked the zipper of his flight suit down until he could pull the dark fabric away from his chest. There was a lump. A smooth lump, right in the middle of where his soulmark would be if he had one. A lump that was rapidly growing. Hunk squeezed his eyes shut and pressed both of his hands to the unnatural protrusion. This wasn’t happening. He’d just- had a reaction to the alien food and passed out and this was all a dream. A terrible, horrible nightmare that he was going to wake up from. Any second now. Any-

The skin beneath his hands split, and Hunk screamed as he curled forward. The foreign object was warm even through the gloves of his flight suit, and blood ran down his chest as his skin split further, peeling back around the smooth, hard, whatever-it-was. He wasn’t going to look. He wasn’t. Clumps of something fell to the floor with wet sounds, and his stomach lurched. He scrambled to his feet and staggered forwards, lifting a hand to cover his mouth. Oh crap, now he could taste blood. He barely made it to the toilet before hurling, emptying his stomach of everything he’d eaten today.

The combination of burning pain from his peeled-back skin, wet impacts of something falling from his chest to the floor, and the smell of vomit had him puking again almost before he could breathe, and soon he was dry-heaving over the bowl. The nausea passed eventually, and Hunk slumped against the cool space-porcelain with a groan. His chest no longer hurt, so there was that, but his mouth tasted like bile and still, faintly, blood. He stood up, willing strength into his unsteady legs, and flushed the toilet. He very deliberately didn’t look down, instead stumbling towards the sink. He needed to wash out his mouth, and pronto.

Pulling off his gloves and gauntlets required looking down, and Hunk tried to keep his eyes off of his chest. Whatever that had been, he wasn’t going to deal with it right now. He’d rinse out his mouth, find Coran, and ask to be put in a cryo-pod for scanning. Fuck baselines, The pods should be able to tell that this _wasn’t normal_. He dropped his gauntlets on the edge of the sink, and shuddered at the slick feeling of his gloved fingers on his skin as he pulled his first glove off. That was his blood, the same blood which was slowly drying on his chest. He dropped his gloves over his gauntlets, and turned on the faucet.

Slurping water from his cupped hands wasn’t ideal, but without a glass it was the best he could do. He swished and spat until his mouth no longer tasted of anything, and when he looked up at his reflection his heart jumped in his chest. It wasn’t out. The bloody, shiny lump was still protruding from his chest, an ugly oval of crimson surrounded by split and curled-back skin. It looked like a flower, a gory flower sprouting from his chest that _should not be there_. Was it stuck? He lifted a hand to his chest with a shuddering breath, and nearly gagged at the feel of the thing sticking out of his chest.

It was hard, as warm as his skin, and wet with blood. In the mirror it gleamed red over his heart, like a mockery of an undefined soulmark. He didn’t have a soulmark, didn’t have a soulmate. He’d made his peace with that years ago. His chest was supposed to be bare, like Lance’s. This... whatever it was, didn’t belong in his skin. He splayed his hand to grip the edges of the protrusion, and hissed when one of his short fingernails scraped some of the split skin. Fuck, he couldn’t do this himself. He needed help.

Lance. Lance could help. Lance and Coran could get this, _thing_ out of him and stick him in one of the pods and he’d be back to normal in a day, tops. The team could survive a day without him, it wasn’t like there were any threats on Arus that would require them to form Voltron. Hunk took a deep breath, and exhaled shakily. He could do this. He could get Lance and Coran’s help, and go in one of those weird only-mostly-calibrated pods, and come out good as new, like nothing ever happened.

Hunk deliberately avoided looking in the mirror as he quickly washed his hands again, then turned around as he zipped his flight suit back up. The space-zipper sealed at either a thread level or atomic one, he wasn’t quite sure, but he deliberately thought about that and not the burning pain of his split skin while he rinsed his gloves and pulled them back on. His gauntlets fastened snug around the gloves, covering the seam where they overlapped his flight suit sleeves, and he was glad he’d thrown his cuirass halfway across the room when he pulled it off because looking at where he’d been sitting any more closely than a cursory glance probably would’ve made him throw up again.

The door was halfway open when the entire room, no, the entire _castle_ shook. He heard screams from the direction of the party, and when the lights blinked out he shouldered the door the rest of the way open. The lights were out in the hallway too, and he stumbled blindly towards the sounds of panic until Yellow purred in the back of his mind. His suit had a built-in flashlight? He looked down at his gauntlet, and tapped a the back of his hand. A bright beam of light illuminated the wall his hand was pointed at.

“Huh. Thanks, bud.” he grinned, pointing his newfound light forward and jogging towards the commotion. None of the doors would work without power, so if he wanted the thing in his chest surgically removed they’d need to fix that first. Fix the power, get the thing out of his chest, go in a pod to make sure he recovered right. An extra step, but nothing he couldn’t handle with some help from Pidge and Coran. This was probably just what it looked like when the castle blew a fuse or something. It was ten thousand years old, after all. Just a few simple repairs and he’d be back to normal.


	3. Chapter 3

The repairs would not, in fact, be simple. When he spotted Lance through the slowly clearing smoke, Hunk was almost glad he’d just puked his guts out. The bloody mess of what had been shining white armour less than half an hour ago made him feel as lightheaded as Keith looked, but he managed to stand firm and get an arm around Coran’s chest to keep him upright. People were talking, the Arusian leader was yelling, but Hunk’s world had narrowed down to Lance. His best friend looked so small cradled against Shiro’s chest. So pale and fragile, with his breastplate smoke-stained and his blood dripping onto the floor. It was red on the metal. Dark in the low light, but red all the same. Hunk would be happy if he never had to see that colour again.

“This is bad.” he said, and Coran pulled away from him.

“We have to get a new crystal to get the castle working again.” Coran said, and Hunk forced himself to stop staring at Lance’s blood on the floor. If they got the castle working, the pods would work, and they could put Lance in one to heal. “But to get a new crystal, we need a ship.”

Oh, right. Nothing worked without power. Not the ziplines to their lions, not the big bay doors, nothing. It was pure luck the doors to the bridge had been open already.

“The pod I was loading, we can use that!” Pidge exclaimed. “I left the bay door open.”

“I can use the scanner in the pod to see if there’s a balmera nearby.” Coran replied, his voice rough. “Hunk, you come with me. I’ll need someone big to help me carry the crystal.”

“A balmera?” Hunk asked, deciding to leave the question of why Pidge had been loading a pod for a later time.

“It’s where the crystals come from. I’ll tell you about it on the way!” Coran said, already turning and starting for the door. Hunk nodded, and jogged after him with Pidge just a step ahead. Help Coran get a new crystal. He could do that.

It didn’t matter that the split-open skin on his chest felt like it was on fire where his flight suit pressed against it. Didn’t matter that there was a strange, bloody, _thing_ sticking out of his chest where most people had a soulmark. Didn’t matter that he felt like he was only half in his own body as he raced through the castle’s darkened corridors. Lance’s face, ashen and painted with soot from the explosion. Lance’s blood dripping onto the floor, like wet drops in a sickly red hourglass. His best friend in the world- no, in the _universe_ needed that crystal. He’d fight an entire galra battleship if that was what it took to get one and bring it back.

\---

The trip out to the Balmera took almost no time at all. Coran had only barely finished explaining what they were and started on a tangent about their beauty when they broke through the cloud cover. The sight that greeted them, however, was far less than beautiful. Hunk stared, and he knew his mouth had fallen open but he didn’t care. There were no glittering crystals on the balmera’s stony skin. Just sharp purple towers and wide, deep holes. A mining colony. A galran mining colony. Hunk felt sick, and not because of pain or fear this time.

A harsh beeping from the round display console between the pod’s front seats drew his attention away from the terrible sight, and he couldn’t read Altean but he had a good idea what the red X coming on-screen meant. “Uh-oh. We’ve been spotted.”

“Hailing unidentified craft.” a mechanical voice said from above them. Not through the ship’s comms, but from outside the ship. “State your ship ID, entry code, and landing destination.”

“Oh, no.” Hunk’s stomach dropped, anger replaced with cold, familiar fear. He’d seen stuff like this in movies, and it never ended well unless the heroes had inside information. They had no information. “What do we do?” he asked, turning to Coran.

“Just stay calm.” Coran said, and turned on the radio. Hopefully to a frequency the galra ship would hear. “We don’t really need to land.” he said into the mic, and Hunk nearly groaned. “Uh, we’re just looking around, if that’s okay.”

Great. They were dead.

“Unidentified craft, land immediately and prepare to be boarded.” the mechanical voice said sternly. Hunk wasn’t sure if he hoped they’d heard Coran or not, but he doubted it made a difference.

“Okay. Thank you. See you down below.” Coran said, and turned off the radio. Before Hunk could ask what the _fuck_ he’d just done, though, Coran grabbed the control stick between the front seats and jammed it forwards, sending them careening through the air in full reverse. Hunk grabbed at the shuttle’s frame and screamed, half praying half wondering how the hell the alteans had been advanced enough to build the lions but not advanced enough to invent _seatbelts_. And of course, just when he stopped screaming long enough to ask how deep the mining shaft went, they hit a beam.

When he pushed himself up off the dashboard, the particle barrier windshield had deactivated. His helmet hadn’t gone into zero-atmosphere mode, and the HUD wasn’t showing any signs of toxins in the air, so he pulled it off with a grunt. Maybe he should see about getting one in a bigger size; this thing was kinda tight. He glanced around, taking in the bare rock walls and floor of the mining shaft, and his eyes locked onto the dark tunnel they’d almost skidded into. Or rather, the two pairs of glowing yellow dots in that tunnel attached to definitely not human shapes.

“Coran?” he asked, reaching over to shake his friend’s shoulder. “What lives at the bottom of these mines?” Coran groaned, and Hunk scrambled out of the shuttle as he drew his bayard. It materialized as soon as his feet were planted firmly on the ground, and he tensed as the shapes moved forwards, into the light. Their eyes were yellow, yes, but the rest of them didn’t match what he knew of galra. No purple, no fluff or scales, just greyish skin that looked elephant-tough and, on the taller one, a teardrop shaped spot of green and brown on his lower abdomen marred with a dark, jagged line. “Wait a minute.” he said, taking in their rough-edged clothes and, as far as he could tell, wary expressions. “You’re not galra.”

“Nor are you.” the smaller, green-clad alien said, sounding somewhat surprised. A humming from above made it gasp and Hunk looked up to see a ship shining bright pink lights along the walls as it slowly hovered down the middle of the shaft.

“A patrol!” the larger alien exclaimed, and Hunk looked back down to see it placing a hand on the smaller one’s shoulder. “Shay, we must take leave from these ones, now.” it said with an unmistakable air of authority.

“Wait, please! We need your help.” Coran called, making the pair of aliens turn to look at them again. “If the galra find us, they’ll kill us!”

“Or torture us.” Hunk added, because by all accounts torture was worse than death. They might try to torture information out of them about the others, about where the castle and the lions were, and without a crystal his friends were defenseless.

“Or keep us as some sort of creepy pet to play with how they please.” Coran added, wiggling his fingers dramatically.

“Not our problem, Hairy Lip.” the larger alien snapped. “Galra see us near you, and they kill both you and us. Shay, exeunt.” it turned away and gestured for the smaller one, Shay, to follow.

“No!” Shay said, stepping back slightly. “These many years, only galra have been seen here. I will not turn my back on the skylings.”

Skylings? Hunk couldn’t help but smile a little. He liked Shay already.

“Vex.” the larger alien spat, and both of them hurried forwards towards the shuttle. “Grab a side.” it said, gripping the ship’s frame with large hands. Hunk hurried to get a grip nearer the back of the pod, on Shay’s side, and together the four of them shoved the shuttle into the tunnel he’d first spotted their new allies in. He reactivated his bayard as soon as the ship was tucked out of the patrol’s immediate view, and braced himself to fire it.

Thankfully, the patrol ship lifted away without dropping any guards, and Hunk exhaled as he let his bayard dematerialise completely. “Thanks for saving us.” he grinned, turning to face the aliens. “I’m Hunk.”

“Shay.” Shay replied with a smile. “And this one my brother Rax.” Shay gestured at- her? probably her- brother before turning back to face him. “How did you fall to us?”

“Actually, we came looking for something. And you guys might be the right people to help us find it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know that “exeunt” is a stage direction? It’s used to indicate a character/group leaving the stage. Combined with the way he says Vex, I’d say Rax confirmed for theater nerd.


	4. Chapter 4

It took until Rax and Shay led them to a small campfire, of all things, for Hunk to realize that the colourful patch on Rax’s abdomen wasn’t just a birthmark of some kind. It was a stone, rough and rounded so shallowly it didn’t stand out among the rocky protrusions of his skin. And the dark line Hunk had spotted from a distance wasn’t a line at all. It was a crack, deep and jagged. And, as Shay introduced her family, Hunk realized they all had stones.

The eldest, her grandmother, had hers located above the collar of her shirt. It was triangular, either an isosceles or close to it, with the wide end just below her collarbone and the upper tip maybe half an inch to the right of her neck. A deep crack ran through it, from the left side of the base to just above the middle of the right edge. It looked just as painful as Rax’s, but the edges were far less jagged. The old woman’s dark stone was smoother in general, really, but there was little shine to it. Like the smoothness was incidental, a product of time rather than polishing. Shay’s parents, however, were the ones that truly caught Hunk’s eye.

Their stones gleamed in the firelight, matching diamonds of white laced with pale yellow-green. Most notably, though, was the fact that their shirts were cut deliberately to show the stones on what Hunk assumed to be their lower right ribs. He glanced around the fire again as Shay’s grandma leaned forwards to stir the soup. Rax, her parents, her grandma... all of them had a stone showing except for her.

“So, uh, what’s with the rocks?” he asked, not directing the question at anyone in particular. Rax scowled, but Hunk was pretty sure he hadn’t seen Shay’s brother smile once since they landed here so that was no surprise. Her grandma laughed, though, and sat back on her rock.

“You skylings don’t have soulstones?” she asked, shaking her head and making a tutting sound. “How sad your lives must be.”

“Oh, those are your soulmarks?” Hunk couldn’t help but glance around the fire again, then ducked his head and looked into the flames. “Sorry, I’m being rude.”

“How so?” Shay asked.

“Well, they’re your soulmarks.” he said, glancing up and finding them looking at him without comprehension.

“Ah. Hunk?” Coran tapped him on the shoulder, and Hunk turned to face him. “Balmerans don’t hide their soulmarks the way you humans do.”

“Oh.” Hunk looked back into the fire. That made sense. Why would aliens subscribe to human cultural norms?

“You can look, if you like.” Shay’s mother said. “We show our soulstones so that all who see know that we have been blessed by Balmera.” she laced her hand with her husband’s, and leaned in to press her cheek to his. Rax made a gagging sound, and his grandmother chuckled.

“And, the cracks?” Hunk asked tentatively. It was probably none of his business, but he felt like if he didn’t ask he might combust from curiosity. He’d have to ask Coran about altean soulmarks later, on their way back to the castle. Maybe talk to some of the arusians while Lance was healing. Oh, damn, why hadn’t he asked those aliens they saved from Sendak’s ship? Huge missed opportunity, there.

“Ah.” Shay’s grandmother hummed, ladling some of the soup into a stone bowl. “The cracks are-”

“A soulstone cracks when its mate cools.” Rax snapped, standing and stepping closer to the fire to snatch the bowl of soup from his grandma’s hands. He turned on his heel and stormed over to the wall behind his rock-seat, sitting down against it with a scowl on his face.

“Rude.” Hunk muttered under his breath. Shay’s grandma seemed unfazed, and ladled out another bowl.

“A soulstone is kept whole by the energy shared by both ones it has grown from.” Shay’s father said, hand still laced with his wife’s even as he took a bowl from his mother and handed it to her. “When one of a pair dies, the other’s gem cracks.”

“Oh.” Hunk’s heart felt heavy behind the still dully burning spot on his chest. “I’m so sorry.” he said, accepting the bowl Shay’s grandma handed him.

“Don’t be.” she waved a hand dismissively before filling a bowl for Coran. “This one’s soulstone saw many febes whole, and has seen many febes since.”

“And will hopefully see many more.” Coran said as he accepted his food with a smile.

“Thanks for the delicious soup.” Hunk said, hoping food would be an adequate change of topic before they started asking about human soulmarks. “Are these potatoes in here?”

\---

While Coran did recon with Shay’s father, Shay led Hunk back to the shuttle. The tunnels were a little less confusing the second time ‘round, but Hunk still would’ve been more comfortable with a map. It took a bit of prying, and some experimental poking of buttons, but he got a panel near the front open and started looking around. Nothing seemed _broken_ , which was good since he was pretty sure they didn’t have any spare parts, but a lot of things looks like they’d been jostled by the crash. Hunk sighed, and dug a toolkit out from under the passenger seat.

This mission sucked. The crystal they needed was impossible to get, their shuttle was broken, the planet-alien was infested with galra, Lance was probably _dying_ back at the castle, and on top of all that his chest still hurt like a bitch. At least the pain was external now, so he could finally breathe right again.

“Your friend, he said that your people hide their marks?”

Hunk sighed, and rubbed at the armour over his chest, habitually pressing down over his heart. “Yeah. The only people who’re supposed to see them are your soulmate and your family.”

“Even once you are bonded?” Shay asked. Hunk looked to his right, and saw her lying on the rock that had been their stopping point when dragging the shuttle into the tunnel.

“Well, soulmarks don’t really make a bond.” Hunk shrugged, going back to his work. “They’re just to help you find the right person to invest your time in. All the bonding’s gotta come from the people involved.” he paused, and leaned out of the shuttle. “Wait, do you guys hide them before bonding or whatever?”

Shay nodded. “Before two ones may marry, they must show each other their soulstones. If both are the same, or if both are broken, then their union is blessed by Balmera.”

“Huh.” Hunk reached into the shuttle and tilted a crystal until it clicked back into alignment. “So, if it’s okay for you to tell me...” he paused, glad for a moment that his arm blocked her from view. “What happened to your brother’s gem?”

“It has always been that way.” Shay said sadly. “For many, since the galra came, their soulstones have grown in cracked.”

“That’s so sad.” Hunk frowned, lowering his tools. Not only had Zarkon enslaved this whole planet and all its people, those people were dying before they could ever meet their soulmates. It was just, just awful, and it made the inside of his chest burn almost as bad as the outside.

“What about your people?” Shay asked. “What are your soul marks like?”

“Oh, nothing special.” Hunk shrugged, stepping back from the shuttle a bit. “It’s a bit of colour on your skin, ‘bout the size of your palm.” he dropped a wrench-like tool into his left hand, and held up his right to show her. “Sits right over your heart.” he put his hand over the burning part of his chest, and Shay mimicked the motion with a small smile. “When you’re a kid it’s just colour, but when you grow up it turns into a picture that’s supposed to represent everything your soulmate is.”

“It sounds beautiful.” Shay said with a grin. “What kind of picture is yours?”

“Don’t have one.” Hunk shrugged. Shay made a pained little sound, and he held up both hands to her. “It’s okay. I don’t mind it. Saves me the trouble of trying to hunt them down.”

“Then you are lucky.” Shay said, her voice going soft.

“I guess.” Hunk shrugged. Lance sure looked at being markless as a stroke of luck, even if it did probably have something to do with all those weird injuries he never remembered getting. “But what makes you say that?”

“My soulstone is, unique.” she said slowly, hand cupped over her heart. Well, presuming her heart was in the same place as his. “Nothing like it has been seen on Balmera in generations, since before the galra came.”

“Oh.” Hunk said, voice dropping almost to inaudibility for a moment. “Well, hey. As long as it’s in once piece, I’m sure you’ll find them.”

“Thank you, Hunk.” Shay smiled, looking over her shoulder at the tunnel mouth that opened into the mining shaft. Hunk went back to work on the shuttle. If they got the crystal but didn’t have a getaway spaceship, Lance was just as fucked as he would be if they didn’t get the crystal at all.

“Tell me, what is the sky like?”

“The sky?” Hunk leaned away from the shuttle again, then turned to face her when he realized that no, the translator hadn’t dropped a word there. “You seriously have never even seen the sky?”

“No.” Shay looked down, then a small smile appeared on her face. “But at night, I sneak up as high as I dare, trying to imagine what it is like.” she stood on the rock and jumped up onto the roof of the shuttle, crouching there and looking up at the ceiling for a second before sighing and tilting her head down towards the hull. “Oh, lucky are you to fly in this machine to worlds far from here.”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be like this.” Hunk said, looking up at her. “You can be free too.”

“Free?” Shay tilted her head slightly.

“Yeah, free.” Hunk said as she dropped down back onto the rock. “It means you can go where you want, be what you want, do what you want. No galra masters to tell you what to do.”

“It makes no sense.” Shay frowned. “Zarkon controls everything.”

“Nope, no.” Hunk grinned, crossing his arms. “Things are changing. Have you heard of Voltron?”

Shay looked at him blankly for a moment, then frowned. “A child’s tale.”

“It’s real.” Hunk frowned back. “I’m one of the Paladins, and Voltron is _going_ to defeat Zarkon.” he said firmly, mouth pulling into a smile.

“You are?” Shay asked, leaning forwards slightly.

“Mmhmm.” Hunk nodded. “And when we do, you’ll be free to travel all over the universe to find your soulmate.”

Shay grinned, and cupped a hand over, presumably, the spot where her soulstone was. “You think so?”

“I know so.” Hunk smiled.

“Stop filling this one’s head with your shadow show.” Rax barked, stalking over to them. “The cavern is our home, and we do not leave it. This will never change.” he turned away, and Hunk caught a glint of light off the jagged crack that ran through his soulstone. “Come.” he said, gesturing for Shay to follow him. She slid down off the rock with a quiet sigh, and Hunk frowned. He didn’t like that guy. Not having a soulmate was no excuse for being an asshole. Though, maybe it was different knowing that you’d had a soulmate but could never meet them.

He sighed, and turned back to the shuttle. Either way, the engine still needed fixing if they wanted to get back to the castle. Hopefully with a crystal, hopefully soon. Lance’s life was on the line.


	5. Chapter 5

As soon as the castle’s power was restored and Lance was tucked safely in a pod, Coran announced that he needed a nap. The rest of the team followed his lead not long after, leaving Hunk alone in the room with Lance’s pod. With his face wiped clean and his battered armour replaced by something Coran had called a cryo-med suit, he looked a lot better than he had the last time Hunk saw him. He was still ashy pale, and unnaturally still, but none of the displays on the translucent front of the pod were lit up red so that meant he was ok. Or, he would be tomorrow. A day in the pod, then a good meal and a nap, and Lance would be good as new. Hunk sighed and leaned his forehead against the cool particle barrier. Now that his friend was in a pod and on the mend, he could relax a little. Could finally pay attention to the burning pain in his chest.

His legs felt like sacks of wet cement as he made his way to the adjacent room, which was furnished like a more sci-fi version of the doctor’s office he’d gone to back home on Earth for shots and checkups and the physical mandated for admission to the Garrison. He pulled off his upper body armour piece by piece, setting the smaller ones inside his cuirass, and when he finally unzipped his flight suit he couldn’t help but sigh. The cool air on his injured chest was a hell of a relief, and he shut his eyes for a moment to just enjoy the relative lack of pain. This was the best he’d felt since that time Lance dragged him to a spa last year for his birthday.

After a minute, though, that got old. He tied the arms of his flight suit around his waist, and got up to pull out the antiseptic wipes Coran had used on Lance’s back before Shiro helped wrestle him into that cryo-med jumpsuit. It would hurt like a bitch, but if he had to wait for Coran to wake up before getting this thing in his chest removed he was going to disinfect and bandage it first. He nearly screamed when the wipe touched his split skin, and slammed it down on the counter next to the box of yet-unused ones.

Fuck, he couldn’t do that. It hurt too much. But bandages would hurt even more. He groaned and slumped forwards, letting his head hang against the upper cabinets. Maybe he could sanitize the thing sticking out of his chest and press the skin flaps up against that with bandages? He pulled out a fresh wipe, and cautiously touched it to the upper edge of the lump . No pain, that was good. He dragged it down, and shivered at the feeling of the wet, cool not-quite-fabric dragging over the smooth surface.

Wait, feeling? He lifted the wipe, and pressed a finger to the clean spot. Pressure, a little bit of warmth. He could feel it as plainly as if he was touching the back of his hand. He could _feel_ through the thing. Whatever this was, it was linked to his nervous system. He swallowed hard, and squeezed his eyes shut. Whatever this was, Coran would be able to help. He just had to keep himself together until morning. He could keep himself together until morning.

He threw away the used wipes, and in moving to put them away noticed another thing Coran had used on Lance. It looked like a blunt exacto knife, but when he picked it up the cutting edge of the blade flickered to life, glowing the same blue as the lights on the collar of his armour. Coran had used it to cut small incisions in Lance’s back to help remove less risky bits of debris, and had promised that even were Lance awake he wouldn’t’ve felt a thing. It wasn’t big enough to take out the thing that had grown from his chest, but maybe…

Hunk turned the knife towards himself, and lifted one of the smaller pieces of loose skin. A few seconds later the scrap of flesh was fluttering to the floor like gory, oversized confetti. The place where he’d cut it free, right at the edge of the protrusion, started to sting after a few seconds, but that was a lot less painful than before. He was going to have a mark after this thing was removed no matter what, so right now keeping the risk of infection down was top priority. Well, that and getting the pain down to a point where his skin no longer felt like liquid fire.

Cutting the rest of the loose skin off didn’t take long, and when he was done set set the blade down and exhaled shakily. God, he almost felt normal again. Aside from the weird thing sticking out of his chest, and some stinging around it from the cut skin, he actually felt fine. He wiped down the weird protrusion, gritted his teeth as he sanitized the cuts around it, and rummaged up a pack of sanitary gauze pads and bandages and medical tape. The end result was lumpy and probably wouldn’t stay on for more than a day, but a day was all he needed.

Tomorrow he could get Coran to take the thing out of his chest, and he’d go in a pod for a few hours, and everything would be back to normal. Or, well, as close as things could be to normal when they were billions of miles from home in an ancient alien castle-ship with psychic lion robots in their heads. Yellow purred, a gentle shift of gravel against itself, and he smiled. If the food were better, he just might actually like this new normal.


	6. Chapter 6

Once he was sure Yellow wouldn’t move without his permission, Hunk turned to the emergency exit hatch. The ladder lead up to the top of his lion’s head, and when he pulled himself up onto the yellow metal Shay was already sitting at the edge, feet hanging in the air above Yellow’s eyes. Hunk wished his helmet had a camera function. The fields of shining crystals below, the starry sky above, and Shay in the foreground. His mom would love it, if nothing else. He walked forward, and sat down next to Shay. Not practically in her lap, the way Lance would’ve done, but a comfortable distance away.

“Thank you for honouring your vow to return.” Shay said after a moment of comfortable silence, turning away from the stunning view of the balmera to look at him.

“I should be thanking you.” Hunk replied with a small smile. “You made me understand what’s most important.” he looked up at the stars, and wondered how many of them had planets around them. How many of those planets had been conquered and their people subjugated like the balmerans. “Zarkon and his Galra Empire are destroying lives.” he said, and looked back at Shay. “I’m a part of a team that can change that. I know that now.”

Shay smiled at him, but was soon distracted by the bright light Hunk had taken them here to wait for. “What is that?” she gasped, eyes widening slightly as the dark sky lit up with golden light.

“It’s the dawn of a new day.” he replied, watching the sun inch up into the sky. It went significantly quicker than an Earth sunrise did, and the light was rich and warm. Scooting back from the edge of his lion, Hunk unfastened his cuirass and pulled it off, lobbing it back towards the hatch. It skidded in with a clatter, and he turned back to the sunrise, letting the dark material of his flight suit absorb as much warmth as this sun was willing to give.

“I thought you did not have a soulmark.” Shay said abruptly, breaking the peaceful silence. Hunk looked down at his chest, and rubbed at the lump with the heel of his hand.

“I don’t. It’s just some weird, idunno, space tumour?” he shrugged. “I haven’t had a chance to ask Coran about it yet, with how hectic everything’s been.”

Shay looked contemplative for a minute, the golden sunrise slowly paling and brightening into daylight. “May I see it?” she asked, looking from Hunk’s face to his chest. He flattened his hand over the lump on reflex, covering the spot where his soulmark would’ve been. “Oh, apologies.” Shay sat back. “That was forward of me.”

“A little, yeah.” Hunk chuckled, running his fingers over the itching skin around the protrusion. Itching meant it was healing, which was good, but ignoring the itching was much harder than ignoring the pain had been.

“It is just, it seems to match mine.” Shay cupped a hand over her soulstone, mirroring Hunk’s pose. “To have such an unusual soulstone grow in, and then not even a quintant later a skyling appears with a growth in the same place...” she trailed off, and Hunk could only stare for a second. Her soulstone had grown in just before he and Coran came here to get the crystal? That matched with when the thing in his chest had broken through the skin. And that, especially when they were talking about alien soulmarks, was too much to be a coincidence.

“You’ve called it unique before.” Hunk said, scooting back from the edge and turning to face Sahy completely. “What does that mean? I haven’t seen more than two balmerans with the same soulstone yet, so aren’t they all kinda unique?” he crossed his legs as Shay pulled one knee up to her chest.

“Yes, but it has been many years since one was born with a soulstone like mine.” she traced around her heart, outlining an oval. “Most soulstones are dark, or their colours dim. Mine...”

“Is gold?” Hunk asked, gripping the strange thing sticking out of his chest. It had looked unnatural on his chest when he glanced in the mirror after his shower, a crystal clear bubble showing the muscles under his skin, shot through with threads of gold with one thick band near the back of the stone laying right over a stripe of muscle. If Shay’s was the same, then...

“Yes.” Shay gasped, eyes wide and shining in the pale early morning light. She reached for the collar of her tunic, and Hunk leaned forwards to grab her hands.

“Wait, wait.” he said quickly, pulling her hands away from the fabric when she hesitated. “Isn’t this part of, like, getting married? Because you’re awesome and all, but-”

“Oh, no.” Shay shook her head. “To have the union of two ones blessed by Balmera is not to unite them. It is simply for two ones, and those around them, to know that their choice of partner has been blessed.”

“Oh.” Hunk sighed. “Yeah, I’m not even old enough to _get_ married back on Earth. Plus, we’ve only known each other for, like, a day?”

“Yes.” Shay giggled, her hands curling around Hunk’s gently. “I would like to know you better, as well. There are some whose soulstones are not for a union of family, but of friendship. I do not yet know which one ours are.”

“Uh, I’d go with friendship.” Hunk chuckled, warmth building in his chest. He’d made his peace with being markless before he hit double digits, but the thought of this strange thing protruding from his chest being fate or destiny or whatever, and linking him to Shay? That wasn’t so bad. Better than thinking he had some sort of weird tumour, if nothing else, but that was a pretty damn low bar to clear.

Shay pulled one of her hands free, and touched the cloth over her soulstone. “I know it is not appropriate, when we have so recently met, but-”

“It’s okay.” Hunk said, lifting his free hand to the collar of his flight suit and peeling the zipper away from the fabric. “I, kinda want to know.” he grinned, fiddling with the zipper pull and looking down at their joined hands. He’d held hands before, with Lance and childhood friends and all his immediate and extended family, but it had never been like this. Shay’s skin was rough, her hand similar in size and shape to his own. The other hands he’d held had been comfortable, sure, but Shay’s felt, well, _right_.

“Together?” she asked, gripping the collar of her shirt with her free hand.

“Together.” Hunk nodded, gripping the zipper firmly. “Three, two, **one**.” he pulled the zipper down to his navel, and Shay tore the front of her tunic in two with one swift motion. The dull green fabric fell open, and normally Hunk would’ve looked away but... the gemstone set in her chest was beautiful. It caught the sunlight and seemed to multiply it, until it looked almost like it was shining from within. He looked down at a soft touch on his chest, and saw her fingers resting on the thing, the _soulstone_ growing out of his skin.

“It is beautiful.” she breathed, looking up to meet his eyes. The flat yellow should’ve been unnerving, but Hunk couldn’t bring himself to look away.

“You’re beautiful.” he replied, because that was apparently all his brain could come up with. Not something about her bravery, or her dedication to helping others, but her beauty? Great, off to a perfect fucking start there. He probably sounded like Lance.

Shay smiled, and her hand tightened slightly around his. “As are you.” she brought Hunk’s hand up towards her chest, and he tentatively touched her soulstone. It was smooth, as warm as her hand, and-

“Please tell me it’s supposed to glow.” he said, looking from the warm golden light in Shay’s chest to the matching bright spot over his own heart.

“Yes.” Shay giggled, leaning in to briefly touch her nose to his. “Balmera has blessed us.”

The sheer joy in her voice was infectious, and Hunk found himself smiling with her when she pulled away. “I never thought I had a soulmate, but...” he glanced at Shay’s glowing soulstone, then out at the balmera’s crystal-strewn surface. “I’m glad.”

“That it is me?” Shay asked, scooting closer until she could rest her hand over his on the metal between them.

“That I didn’t know until today.” Hunk said, looking back at Shay. “I’m glad I got to know you as a friend first.”

“I am glad of that too.” Shay nodded. “And, I would like to be better friends, before we seek a union. For family or otherwise.”

“My cell plan doesn’t cover inter-planetary calls, but I’m sure Allura and Coran can help us set something up.” Hunk grinned. They’d have to head back to the group soon, but for now Hunk was content to admire the balmera lit up by morning sunlight and his soulmate illuminated by the golden glow of her soulstone.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hunk!” Shay cried, and the second both his feet were on the balmera’s skin Hunk was staggering under the impact of a solid body against his chest.

“Shay!” Hunk laughed, pulling away from her just enough to press his nose against hers. She laughed and pressed her cheek to his, and he pulled her into another hug.

“You did not tell me you were coming!” she grinned when they separated again.

“Wanted to surprise you.” Hunk shrugged, soulstone pulsing warm in his chest. “Allura said our next strike against the Empire will be to free a few of their key balmeras, so she wants to find an ambassador.”

“Those are the ones you say talk to people, yes?” Shay tilted her head. “To assure them Voltron means no harm?”

“Yeah.” Hunk nodded. “And that we can do whatever we’re promising. Which, as long as it’s not Lance or Keith making the promises, we can usually manage.”

“I can hear you shit-talking me over there, Hunk!” Lance yelled from where he was standing with Keith Pidge and Coran.

“Language.” Shiro called, glaring at them briefly over his shoulder before turning back to the council of elders who the balmerans had chosen as their leaders. Shay giggled, and leaned in to press her cheek to Hunk’s again.

“This one will gladly volunteer to be an ambassador.” she said, pulling away and taking one of Hunk’s hands. For the first time, he had a chance to see what she was wearing. It wasn’t much different from what she’d worn last time they talked over long-range holo-dot, just a modest green tunic with a deep neckline that revealed the golden threads glittering in her glassy clear soulstone. At least a dozen balmerans in the crowd were wearing similar tops, but she made the plain, sturdy fabric look as stunning as any princess ball gown.

“It’s a pretty tough job.” Hunk warned her as they started towards Allura and Shiro. “You’d be talking to people who have no reason to believe you. People like Rax.”

“He is not that bad.” Shay grinned, elbowing Hunk in the side. “He is just protective. I am his only sister.”

“I think he just doesn’t like me.” Hunk said, and Shay shrugged.

“Still, he is not that rude.”

“Okay, but you can’t deny he was kinda an ass when we first met.” Hunk said.

“That is true.” she nodded. “He was afraid for our family.”

“Well, when you’re an ambassador, everyone you talk to is scared for their families. For all the families on their planet, a lot of the time” Hunk said, releasing Shay’s hand to gesture. “They’re scared, and rude, and sometimes just plain mean. Especially on planets where they haven’t heard about Voltron yet.”

“Still.” Shay’s small smile fell. “If you and Coran had brought a balmeran with you, we would have trusted you sooner when you crashed. Even Rax might have believed your words, had they come from a balmeran mouth.” she paused, hands curling nervously.

“You want to help.” Hunk said, slipping his hand into hers.

“Yes.” Shay nodded, a smile slipping onto her face. “I want to help Voltron. I want to help free other balmerans. I-” she smiled and squeezed his hand. “I want to help you.”

“I kinda thought you would.” Hunk twisted his hand, lacing his fingers between hers. “But Shiro and Allura promised to be fair, so you may not get to come with.”

“That is fine with me.” Shay gripped his hand tightly, and Hunk squeezed her hand back. If she did get to come with, he wasn’t sure how that would affect their relationship. He’d never had a qpp before, aside from maybe Lance but they’d never really put a label on whatever it was they had. But, well, if he’d shared a room and a ton of classes with his sorta-qpp for an entire school year and then some, he could share a whole castle with his actual qpp. It would be like having another best friend on board. He just had to hope Lance didn’t get jealous, or if he did Keith would stop him from acting on it.

\---

“I thought the castle was capable of repairing your armour.” Shay said, perching on the back of the couch by his left shoulder.

“Yeah, which is why I wanted to test the design out by hand before machining it in properly.” Hunk said, lifting the engraving tool and blowing on the latest stripe gouged into his breastplate. It looked alright so far, which was better than his first few attempts. “What do you think?” he asked, tilting the armour so Shay could get a better look at the mark.

“I think it is sweet.” she smiled, reaching down to trace first the engraving, then his soulstone. The gem warmed at her touch, and Hunk leaned sideways to press his cheek to arm. “Will the proper machining be flat to the armour, or indented like this?” she tapped the engraving again.

“I was actually thinking or making it rounded out.” Hunk said, setting the tool to a yet-uncut part of the design and pressing down with just the right amount of pressure. “I thought about putting a clear particle barrier in at first, but then I’d have to put one in my flight suit too and if both of those failed it could be pretty bad.”

Shay made a clicking sound Hunk had come to know was her way of expressing concern, and he lifted his engraving tool to put a hand over hers. “Hey, that’s why I’m doing this instead.” he smiled reassuringly. “I’m not going to die on you.”

“I should hope not.” Shay said, sliding down from the back of the couch and curling her tail aside to lie on the cushion between their legs. “So, why cut into this armour if the final version will not be engraved?”

“Well, the yellow bit is going to need to be attached somehow, so I’m seeing how deep it can be set before the armour’s structural integrity is compromised.”

“And the castle does not have programs for this?” Shay frowned, tilting her head as Hunk resumed carefully cutting out the latest stripe.

“It does, but Pidge has that thing working on an armour-mounted cloaking system and the lag was driving me nuts.” Hunk prised the newly freed material out and dropped it in the pile with the rest. “Plus, I like working with my hands. It’s relaxing.”

“It is relaxing to watch, as well.” Shay leaned against him, and Hunk refrained from starting on the final stripe until she had settled against his side. “May I?”

“Of course.” Hunk smiled, and set down his tool to reach over and trace the edge of her soulstone. The gem in his own chest pulsed with warmth, and he leaned his cheek against the top of Shay’s head as she chittered contentedly. All his life, he’d heard soulmates described in a hundred contradictory terms. Being with Shay wasn’t quite like any of the descriptors he could remember, but now he understood why there were so many analogies.

Having your soulmate nearby, both of you content in each other’s presence, it felt like nothing else in the world. Sure, he and Shay were extra comfortable right now because sometime in the past few months the castle had become home for both of them, but Hunk knew that this heavy, warm sensation of peace would’ve stolen through him regardless of where they were. Castle couch, uncomfortable bench in the capitol building of a planet they had to convince to join the Voltron Alliance, even in a galran prison cell he was sure they’d both feel it.

“Grandmother was right.” Shay murmured against his shoulder, tilting her head to give him a soft smile. “Being with one’s soulmate feels like Balmera’s embrace.” she lifted a hand and traced one fingertip down the center of his soulstone, nuzzling into his shirt with a contented little sound.

“Yeah.” Hunk nodded, adjusting his grip on the tool in his hand. “It feels like- like coming home.” he blinked, and lifted the tool so he wouldn’t accidentally press too hard in his distraction. Like coming home. Hunk thought about returning to the castle after long away missions, about the last time he came home from the Garrison for a school break, about the feeling of Shay at his side. He had never understood people who said that home was a person, or people. His house was still home when his parents weren’t there, after all. The castle was home even when the rest of the team was out on a planet and he was laid up with stomach flu or some other thing not bad enough to justify the time in a cryo-pod. But now, he thought he might understand.

“I like the sound of that.” Shay said softly. Hunk smiled, and set to carving out the last piece of his latest test alteration. Earth was still millions of billions of miles away, but as long as he was with Team Voltron, as long as he was with _Shay_ , he was home.


	8. Chapter 8

Hunk woke with a groan, and rolled over as well as he could to turn off the alarm. Shay made a low, irritated chirring noise, and he turned back over to drape an arm over her.

“Morning already?” she mumbled, eyes sliding just open enough to reveal a thin slit of gold.

“Yeah.” Hunk sighed, leaning in to press his nose to hers. She smiled, and leaned into the contact. God, they’d been sharing a room for almost a year now and he still wasn’t over the way Shay smiled when she was still waking up. “I have to get up. Breakfast won’t make itself.”

Shay sighed, but pushed herself up into more or less sitting when Hunk rolled away from her and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “Oh, is that the date?” she said, sounding much more awake than she had a minute ago.

Hunk glanced at the little electronic calendar Pidge had made him as a birthday gift. It could show the date and time on Earth, how many days they’d been in space, how many _quintants_ they’d been in space, and what Shiro had nicknamed the stardate. The stardate showing right now was one he’d been anticipating for movements, ever since they located Samuel Holt. “Holy shit!” he blurted, turning and pulling Shay into a quick hug, pressing his cheek to hers. “It’s today!”

“I thought so.” Shay laughed, nuzzling back. “Come, we need to shower.”

“Shit, I don’t think I have any normal shirts anymore.” Hunk frowned, looking down at his chest. Even his sleep shirt had a hole cut in it to display his soulstone, now. It had been, what, two years since he stopped wearing his vest because it covered up the gem? Maybe closer to two and a half. He’d have to wear his armour for First Contact anyways, but after that... 

“Hunk.” Shay pressed his hands together between her own. “It will be alright.” she smiled, and moved one hand to run a thumb over the upper curve of his soulstone. The ever-present sense of comfort and belonging intensified for a moment, and Hunk relaxed slightly. “I am eager to meet them.”

“My grandma’s going to be insufferable.” Hunk chuckled, lacing his fingers with Shay’s. “Run off to space for three years and you come back with an alien?” he affected a higher, scratchy voice, and Shay pressed her nose to his forehead.

“Shower.” she said, scooting to the edge of the bed. “You can tell me about them again in the kitchen.”

“Good idea.” Hunk nodded, releasing her hand and standing. He’d have to make something extra special for breakfast. It wasn’t every day you got to come back to your home planet.

\---

Hunk set the shuttle down on the beach. He’d wanted to take Yellow, but the Lions were on lockdown until Earth joined the Alliance. Exposing humanity at large to supermassive alien weapons was, as Lance had put it, a really fucking awful idea. The leaders who Allura, Shiro, and the more humanoid alien ambassadors were currently talking to would know, of course, but the last thing they needed was conservatives around the world yelling about aliens with weapons of mass destruction. So shuttle it was. Hunk shut the engines down, set the lock to his and Shay’s signatures, and then turned off the particle barrier windscreen.

This stretch of shore was never crowded, being a place local kids liked to hang out and not one of the big scenic tourist beaches, and Hunk habitually scanned his surroundings as he got out of the shuttle. Nobody, not a soul. The flat sea and rapidly approaching storm clouds probably had something to do with that. He double checked that the ship was well above the high tide line, then offered a hand to Shay. “C’mon. My house isn’t far from here.”

“And you are sure they still live there?” she asked, lacing her fingers with his as they started down the beach towards the path that would take them into town.

“Yeah.” Hunk nodded. “Pidge confirmed everyone’s addresses before we came down for First Contact. Offered to give me a map, but I know this whole island like the back of my hand. And it’s not like they’ve even moved or anything.”

“I am excited to meet your mother.” Shay said, shoulder bumping against his when she stepped closer for a moment. “She sounds like an incredible woman.”

“She really is.” Hunk smiled. “I’d watch out for the triplets, though. They might try to tackle you.”

“I’ve faced down worse than three small humans.” Shay teased.

“You’ve never met my sisters.” Hunk shook his head. “Just, don’t be surprised if you get knocked on your ass.”

“I will try not to be.” Shay’s smile made his soulstone pulse with warmth, and Hunk steeled himself as they reached the footpath into town. He’d been on TV just earlier today, in armour next to the other Paladins. Shay had been there too, but not center stage. More off to the side, with the other ambassadors he and Keith had deemed human-looking enough to not cause a panic. He gripped her hand tighter, and waved hello to a man he recognized. The man’s mouth fell open, and Shay gave his hand a squeeze. It wasn’t long before they reached his front door, and Hunk swallowed hard.

“Ready?” he asked, half to Shay half to himself.

“Of course.” Shay said, running her thumb over the back of his hand. Hunk lifted a hand towards the doorknob, then shook his head. He couldn’t just walk in. He lifted his hand a little further, and rang the doorbell.

Hunk had been in active war zones more times than he could count. Had been tortured and heard and seen others being tortured, waiting for the next spike of pain or agonized scream. Had watched friends and allies alike slowly bleed out as he applied pressure and they waited for someone with an actual first aid kit to show up. Had sat helpless in the castle while his friends and allies were being held hostage, eyes locked on the bridge’s viewscreen as he waited for a call with demands. And somehow, even after all that, the seconds waiting for someone to come open the door felt like the longest of his life.

When it swung open, he had to look down to see the person on the other side. Tria stared up at him with wide eyes, a plastic fighter jet clutched in the hand not gripping the doorknob. “HUNK!” she screamed after a long second, dropping her jet and launching herself at his waist. He released Shay’s hand as he staggered back a step, then yelped and pinwheeled his arms when his sister dropped and yanked his legs out from under him. The front porch hurt to hit, especially since he wasn’t wearing his armour, and Shay giggled as Tria scrambled onto his chest.

“Guys, Hunk’s back!” she yelled into the house, then turned to smile down at him. “I’ve been taking Jiu-Jitsu.” she chirped.

“I hate you.” Hunk groaned. Tria laughed, but it was just a short burst before her eyes widened again and she poked at his soulstone. Hunk shivered. It felt, weird, having someone else touch it.

“What’s this?” she asked, tilting her head as Max and Kalie skidded into view. One of them had a normal pillow taped to her chest and throw pillows taped to her forearms, while the other had a bandolier of nerf dart cartridges draped across her torso.

“Hunk!” they squealed, and Hunk let out an exaggerated oof as they both flopped on top of him.

“You brats are getting heavy.” he complained, pulling them all into a hug and sitting up. “You miss me?”

“We knew you weren’t dead!” his pillow-clad sister beamed, displaying shining white teeth. Alright, so that was Max and Kalie had the nerf cartridges.

“ _I_ knew he wasn’t dead.” Tria said imperiously as his parents appeared in the doorway.

“We agreed with you, though.” Kalie huffed.

“Hunk?” his mom’s voice wavered, and Hunk stood up, letting his sisters go and accepting his mother’s hug. “My little boy.” she sobbed into his shirt as his dad’s arm wrapped around his shoulders.

“I’m home.” he said softly, managing to keep his voice level somehow. His breath hitched, and he slumped into his parents’ embrace. “I’m home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The triplets are all identical. The only reason Hunk can tell Tria apart is because she broke her nose when she was five and it’s looked a little weird ever since.


	9. Chapter 9

When his dad had herded the triplets back inside and his mom was done sprinkling his face with kisses, Hunk pulled away and turned to Shay. The smile on her face made his soulstone warm, and when she took his extended hand Hunk noticed his mom looking between them.

“Your grandmother is going to have a fit.” his dad said with a wry smile.

“About the alien thing or the soulmark thing?” Hunk chuckled, and his dad shook his head. “Mom, Dad, this is Shay.” he said before his mom could offer her two cents about what her mother would think.

“I am happy to meet you.” Shay said, her English perfectly smooth in a way Hunk’s Balmean would never be. “Your son is a wonderful man.”

“Shay.” Hunk elbowed her with a grin, and his mom beckoned them inside. The triplets were shooed off of the loveseat, which now had its throw pillows back, and Hunk let his hand rest on top of Shay’s on the cushions between them.

“So.” his dad said, trying to fill the awkward silence.

“What type of alien are you?” Max blurted, leaning forward with her hands on her knees.

“Why’s there a rock in your chest?” Kalie added.

“Can I touch it?” Tria reached out, and Shay cupped a hand over her soulstone.

“No.” she said quickly, leaning towards Hunk and away from his sister’s reaching hand. “A soulstone is only to be touched by one’s self and one’s match.”

“That’s boring.” Tria huffed.

“Tria, behave.” Dad said sternly. “Kalie, Max, you too.”

“We didn’t even do anything!” the three of them complained in unnerving synchronisation. Alright, so that wasn’t an ability they’d lost.

“Sorry about them.” Mom apologised with a sigh.

“It is very alright.” Shay said, lowering her hand. “Few are the ones who are not from Balmera and know our ways.”

Alright, so maybe they had to work on sentence structure, but considering they’d only started a few months after progressing to the shared-room part of their relationship, Hunk was just happy that Shay could talk to his family without needing to use him as a translator.

“So, this... Balmeria.” 

“Balmera.” Hunk and Shay said, and Hunk chuckled. Had they been on the castle, he could have video footage of this moment from the security cameras. Had he been wearing his armour, Yellow could’ve recorded it for him. But they weren’t on the castle, and he wasn’t in his armour, so all Hunk could do was commit this scene before him to memory. Shay sitting on the loveseat next to him, telling his mother about her homeworld and her job. His sisters openly staring at her, and at their matching soulstones. His dad smiling, an arm around his mom’s shoulders as he nodded along with Shay’s story of the first time she played ambassador.

His family was all together, almost. The only people missing were his team, and his grandparents, and his aunt and uncle and cousins. Okay, so maybe this was only like a third of his family, but it was the third he loved the most. His parents, his sisters, and his soulmate. It was something he’d never thought about, before meeting Shay, but now he couldn’t imagine a life where this wasn’t possible.

\---

“Oh, looks like the rain’s letting up.” his dad said as they cleared the table of lunch dishes, the triplets already dragging Shay off to play dress-up with them.

“Already?” Hunk looked out the window, and sure enough the storm was abating.

“There’ll be a bigger one coming through tonight, according to the radar.” his dad plucked an abandoned pickle off Shay’s plate and popped it in his mouth. “Doubt even that fancy ship you were talking about would be able to take off in what the weathermen are projecting.”

“You know the weather channel is wrong, like, all the time.” Hunk said, putting the condiment bottles back in the fridge.

“Still. I don’t like the idea of you trying to fly in a storm like what’s being predicted.” his dad frowned, collecting the dirty glasses and loading them into the dishwasher. “And you know we would love to have you home for the night.”

Of course that’s what this was about. Hunk looked down at the plates in his hands, and silently loaded them into the dishwasher. “We can’t stay.” he said softly. “I’m a Paladin, and Shay’s an ambassador. Voltron needs us.”

“Not forever.” his dad said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Just for dinner, and if there’s no storm you can leave after desert.”

Hunk knew this trick. He’d seen his sisters play it countless times, and had even used it himself once or twice. Just stay for dinner, just stay for dessert, just stay for a movie or two, oh it’s too late to head home just stay the night. “I’m sorry.” he shook his head, shrugging off his dad’s hand. “Allura wants us all back on the castle in-” he pulled out his phone and unlocked it to look at the screen. “Two and a half vargas.”

“Vargas?” his dad frowned.

“About three and a half hours.” Hunk said, holding up a hand and tilting it from side to side. “I was actually going to show Shay around the island. You can come, if you want. We could make it a family outing.”

“No.” His dad shook his head with a small smile and a chuckle. “Go, save your soulmate from your sisters before they cover her in eyeshadow and blush. Your mother and I will make sure they don’t shadow you on your date.”

“Daaad.” Hunk groaned as his father mussed his hair. “It’s not a date.”

“Fine. Your _platonic_ date.” his dad teased. “Go, I’ll make the girls help me finish clearing the table.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Hunk pulled his old man into a hug, brief and tight and hopefully enough to convey everything he couldn’t put into words. “I’m gonna miss you.”

“Well, I hope you come back before you and those Paladins set off into space again.” his dad smiled, hugging back just as tight. “I need to evaluate those whippersnappers myself, make sure they’re good for my little man.”

Hunk laughed as he pulled away. “I’ll bring it up with Shiro and Allura. Maybe we can take a day to go visit everyone’s families as a team.”

“Just make sure to give us some warning when you do, alright?” his dad smiled, the same small smile he’d worn waving Hunk off at the airport when he first left for the Garrison. “Your mother will want her family here.”

“Of course.” Hunk nodded, then glanced towards where Shay and his sisters probably were. “Introducing Tinamatua to Shay is going to be... fun.”

“Not to mention those other aliens that were front and center with you.” his dad nodded.

“Aliens?” Hunk frowned. Coran had been off to the side with the ambassadors, so it had just been Allura with them. “Oh, you’re counting Keith.” Hunk nodded. “Yeah, that’ll be fun. I’ll try to give you at least a few hours warning.”

“Go, go.” his dad made a shooing gesture with his hands. “Make sure you stop by the grocery store. Mrs. Isaacson woke me up at three in the morning to make me promise I’d send you her way when you came home.”

“I will.” Hunk chuckled, letting his dad push him out of the kitchen. He and Shay would definitely get some weird looks, but they were used to that. Balmerans weren’t really known to stray far from their home balmera, and he was one of seven humans known in the wider universe. Compared to the reactions they got on other planets this would be a cake walk.


	10. Chapter 10

“Thanks.” Hunk grinned, handing the cashier a bill and waiting for the receipt before taking the pair of ice creams. He dropped the change and printed paper in his pocket, where the rest of his under-the-mattress allowance stash now rested, and walked back across the street to where Shay was looking in a shop window. “Here.” he said, holding out one of the cones. “One scoop coconut, one scoop chocolate.”

“They’re so round.” she marvelled, taking her cone and biting into the top scoop. “And delicious!”

“Yep.” Hunk chuckled, licking his own cone, which had the scoop of coconut on top. “That’s chocolate.”

“I see now why Shiro missed it so much.” she nodded, taking another bite. Hunk switched his ice cream to his other hand, and linked his free arm around Shay’s.

“So, how are you liking Earth so far?” he asked as they started back down the street at a slow pace.

“It is very interesting.” Shay said absently. “I thought your planet only had one sentient species on it.”

“We do.” Hunk frowned. There were one or two shapeshifting diplomats, but they were supposed to be at the negotiations with Allura. If one of them was here, there was the distinct possibility that they were ditching the meeting and had tailed him here because they thought he’d take their side.

“But these clothing shops do not seem designed for humans.” Shay gestured at a mannequin in a store window, and Hunk had to stop in his tracks. He looked from the featureless white figures sporting the latest swimwear, to the handful of other people on the street, back to the mannequins, then finally to Shay.

“Oh, those” he grinned. “Those are just mannequins. They’re just there to show how the clothes are supposed to fit.”

“Oh.” Shay looked away, and Hunk leaned over to press his nose to her cheek.

“You’re adorable, you know that?” he asked, pulling back and taking another mouthful of his ice cream. Shay didn’t look at him, but he saw her mouth pull up into a small, shy smile. “Hey, once we’re done with our ice cream, whattaya say we get some?”

“Some what?” Shay cocked her head, turning it to look at him.

“Some swimsuits.” Hunk explained, gesturing at the shop window. “If we go back to the castle someone’s going to ask us to stay and help with things, and I’d rather spend my remaining two hours of shore leave here with you.”

“Do you not have swim clothes in your room in your Earth home?” Shay asked, starting to amble along again.

“Yeah, but those are at least four years old and I don’t trust elastic waistbands after three.” Hunk shrugged. “And hey, that pair would look nice on you.” he pointed at a pair of shorts on a curvy mannequin, gaudy orange things with a smiling yellow sun on one ass cheek and an equally yellow silhouette of Hawaii on the other.

“They would not!” Shay laughed, stepping sideways to knock her shoulder against his.

“No, no, they would.” Hunk grinned. “The top, too.” he gestured at the mannequin’s upper half as its rotating stand spun it around, indicating the cropped yellow halter top that said Hawaii on the bust in cursive.

“They would look better on you.” Shay grinned, taking another large bite of her ice cream. Hunk made a mental note to get his hands on powdered baking chocolate before they left Earth. And normal chocolate, too. Once he scanned something with the attachment Pidge had added to the food goo machine he could replicate the flavour, if not the texture, and chocolate food goo would be better than nothing in deep space. Baking chocolate food goo would be a good prank, too. He’d have to remember to swap the scan labels on those two sometime.

“What are you thinking about?” Shay asked, dragging Hunk back to reality.

“Nothing.” he shook his head, licking up a long drip of chocolate and coconut before it could touch his fingers. “Just a prank I can pull on the others, once we’re back in space.”

“Oh?” Shay grinned, her teeth stained with chocolate and her eyes alight with mischief. “What kind of prank?”

“A food goo one.” Hunk smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll warn you before I pull it.”

“You better.” Shay elbowed him playfully in the side. Hunk elbowed her back, and quickly took a big bite of his ice cream to balance it before it could slide off of the cone. He wouldn’t give up being a Paladin of Voltron for anything, but no other planet in the universe could match this. The warm rain puddles, the sunshine, the coconut ice cream, the ocean breeze. He definitely wouldn’t mind having a whole day off from defending the universe, if he got to spend it here.

\---

“So, how does that one fit?” Hunk asked, leaning against the strip of wall between Shay’s stall door and the adjacent one.

“It is- better?” she said hesitantly.

“Can I see?” he pushed off of the wall and turned to face the door. It swung open a few seconds later, and he couldn’t help but gasp. The previous sun dresses Shay tried on had hung awkwardly on her, accentuating how inhuman her frame was. This one, however, fit like it had been made for her. The top third of the dress had been rows and rows af scrunches on the hangar, but on Shay it was more like gentle ripples, the wide green straps resting flat on her shoulders. The loose skirt hung around her knees, pale yellow hem lifting slightly in the back over the tip of her tail, and not one colour of the gradient in between looked odd against her skin.

“Wow.” he breathed.

“Does it look good?” she asked, fingers curling in the soft fabric.

“You look beautiful.” he smiled, taking one of her hands. It wouldn’t be possible to alter this dress to show her soulstone, but they could have the castle fabricators make something next to identical.

“You think so?” Shay beamed.

“Even moreso than usual.” Hunk replied, leaning in to press his cheek briefly to hers. “Do you want it?”

Shay looked down at herself, removing her hand from Hunk’s to hold the skirt out away from her body like she was examining the fabric. “It will not be practical for the ship.” she said with a small frown. The disappointment was audible in her tone, and Hunk sighed.

“Does it have to be?” he asked, sliding his hands into hers. “Things can be beautiful for the sake of being beautiful. And the next time we come across a warm planet-”

“I will be wearing what I always wear when I am representing Voltron.” Shay sighed.

“Only until negotiations are over.” Hunk said softly, rubbing circles into the backs of her hands with his thumbs. “Do you want the dress?” he asked. Shay nodded, a quick little jerk of her head, and Hunk pressed his forehead and nose to hers for a long second. “Then we’ll get it. It’s not like this cash is good anywhere else in the universe.”

Shay giggled, and Hunk pressed his cheek to hers again. “I’ll grab a different one for the cashier to scan, if you want to wear it out.”

“That would be nice.” Shay smiled. Hunk gave her hands a squeeze, and went to get a dress to scan.

The cashier stared a bit as he checked out, as did the people they passed on the sidewalk, but Hunk didn’t care. He’d had more eyes fixed on him, and far more judgmentally. Shay held her head up, but her shoulders were squared like she was about to walk into an important meeting as an Ambassador of Voltron. Hunk slipped an arm around her waist and stepped closer to her, the bag with their matching swim trunks bouncing against his knee.

“Relax.” he murmured, squeezing his hand tighter for a moment. “They’re just jealous you’ve got such a hunk for a soulmate.”

Shay giggled, the tension bleeding from her shoulders, and wrapped an arm around the small of his back. “Well, they are right to be jealous.” she smiled, turning and bumping her nose against his cheek by his ear. “Even without Balmera’s blessing, I could not have picked a better partner.”

“Me neither.” Hunk smiled. They still had nearly an hour left before Allura wanted them back on the ship. Plenty of time to get back to the beach, change in the back of the shuttle, and take a dip in the ocean before heading home. Hunk looked over at Shay, and his soulstone pulsed with warmth. She was smiling at the birds flying overhead, a smear of brown next to her mouth where the chocolate ice cream had stained her skin. Her arm rested around his waist, and her gentle laugh rang in his ear as one of the birds tried to land on a phone wire and slipped.

For the first time in a long while, Hunk was at peace.


End file.
